Republicans have a plan for health care: Letters

Fifty years ago this month I was working in Laos with International Voluntary Services, on which the Peace Corps is based. We had no TV and depended on weekly magazines for news.

One hot afternoon I loaded tools in my jeep after helping with a village work project. Several of the local elders approached. One spoke for the others: “Do you speak Lao? Are you American?” Yes.

He was very sympathetic. “We are very sorry to hear of the death of ...,” and he used a word I hadn’t yet learned. We worked it out: He was speaking of the American president. The concept was so absurd that I assured the men that they must have heard a rumor on a Thai radio broadcast. They looked at each other, nodded, and left. One said to another, “He hasn’t heard yet.”

I drove 40 dusty kilometers to the capital of Vientiane. In our headquarters, a fellow IVSer was sitting and reading. I asked what was new. “Not much,” he replied, “Oh, the president was shot.” “Which president?” I asked. “Ours.” “Hurt badly?” “He was killed. The funeral was yesterday.” I didn’t believe him.

But it was unusually quiet in our office and a glance at the framed picture of Kennedy on the wall made me realize that the news was true. A Buddhist assistant had taped a Dixie cup under the picture: a white flower floated on the water.

— Galen Beery, La Verne

Eliminate, don’t fix, Social Security

I would fix Social Security by eliminating it. People could stop paying into Social Security and invest their money in private accounts which would have a better rate of return on their money.

The government uses the money received for Social Security for many other things, such as disabilities and its own general fund; it is not put in a lock box.

— Merle Taylor, Highland

Legislature should lead on changes to AB 1266

AB 1266 must be amended as soon as possible. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano misread the tea leaves of political sentiment due to his party winning a super majority, but direct democracy bit him in the behind.

This pending law was supposed to help promote educational opportunities of transgendered youth in our state. Transgender students are emerging and are a reality in many of our schools where they deserve a safe and supportive educational environment so they can learn instead of being fearful of going to school.

I would rather see the campaign to amend and replace AB 1266 happen via the Legislature instead of the voters because I am deeply afraid that the proponents of the amendment will lead a deeply polarized campaign that will poison the political climate — such as how proponents have sold the campaign for supporters to state that trans youth are deviants and they will molest their fellow students. We need to come up with a solution that offers as much inclusion to transgender students without setting their lives back five steps.

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Most of AB 1266 sounds reasonable to many people, but people do have honest hang-ups about the restroom and locker room issue that caused the rancor that fueled the signature drive.

The sad tragedy is, even if we had more acceptable language that soothes the fears on the restrooms and locker rooms, and we left it to local school districts to make the policies, the organizers of the campaign would still fight tooth and nail to make sure that transgender students are not treated with dignity and respect.